Factors Affecting the Initial Return of Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) and IPO Underpricing in the Colombo Stock Exchange

The initial public offering is an important milestone for a company; however, this can be also turned into a reason which causes great wealth loss as well. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors affecting IPO initial return and examine the level of underpricing that prevails in the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE). The study considers 68 IPOs from 2006 to 2018. The selected factors for the study are ASPI Return, Sector Price/Earnings ratio, Age, Earnings Per Share, Debt Ratio, Net Asset Value, Return on Asset, Price/Earnings Ratio, Debt/Equity Ratio, Offer Price, and Over Subscription Rate. Multiple regression results reveal that ASPI return and over-subscription rate are positively influenced by market-adjusted initial return (MAIR) and offer price is negatively affected. Underpricing analysis revealed that the MAIR and the prevailing level of underpricing is raw initial return equal to 14% and market-adjusted return is 18%. The beverage, food, and tobacco sector, Banking, Finance, and Insurance sector, and diversified holding sector are identified as highly underpriced sectors of CSE. It is recommended that Investors must consider capital market variables and IPO variables for IPO investment decisions regardless of the financial indicators of the company.